Sydney to The Sunshine Coast – 2830kms

Sydney was a significant stop over for me as my wife Sophie is currently living in Darlinghurst on tour with ‘The Sound of Music’ and I was keen to spend some quality time with her, we are also lucky to have some good friends living up here and what better way to spend Australia Day than on Coogee Beach with a beer and JJJ hottest 100 in 28 degree sun. Dad and my brother Tim flew out to Melbourne late Australia day and I have never seen my dad so happy to be swimming in the ocean.  So that left us with both our partners and Ryan to spend the next 3 days roaming Sydney’s haunts. James and I spent a frustrating day trying to obtain final gear needed for the bikes and luggage in particular a top box for me as I had left Melbourne without one due to a lost key! I ended up organising one in Brisbane to pick-up passing through enabling me to spend the final day with Soph.

We had our worst departure yet out of Sydney, late to see Sophie off and with Ryan off at the doctors to have a sore elbow looked at we didn’t end up getting away until 2:30pm. This coincided with a massive thunder-storm to see us out of the city limits no sooner than 2 hours. Intended destination was Coffs Harbour through the ranges but we ended up with only enough time to make it to Port Macquarie straight up the Pacific Highway a good day to utilise the Sena bike to bike communication gear to keep us from the monotonous straight road and varying speed limit. A good nights sleep in the tent we were away early for a big day Destination Byron Bay and given James’ recent ‘surprise marriage’ I proposed a plan for a belated Buxx Party in the party town on the most Eastern tip of Australia and organised a motel room close to the action.  Turned out to be a massive day of riding in total 601km’s and it was a good example of why not to fall behind, we had a blast but the day wore us down. Ryan was doing exceptionally well to keep up with us given he has only had his licence for 6 months! Upon arrival in Byron it was off to town for a feed, beers and the rest needs to stay with lads – we did however find ourselves at the back of the crowd in the beach hotel acknowledging the fact that we were not quite as young as we feel.

We rose the final day nursing a slight hangover, although I think James was putting on a brave face! A couple of coffee’s and breakfast had us away with a quick stop at the Cape Byron lighthouse for some happy snaps, and a glimpse of a pod of dolphins off the shoreline – a reminder of the beauty of Australia and how lucky we are to call it home.  We left Byron for our final leg through to Minyama on the Sunshine Coast QLD to stay with a very good friend Simon, travelling the long way up and over Mount Tamborine we realised that chasing the sun around the world could be harder than first thought with temperatures rising and humidity you could swim in. A quick detour past a bike shop South of Brisbane put a smile on my dial obtaining my much needed top-box, better than the old one and with working keys! James’ Monica had already arrived from Sydney and we were welcomed to the Sunshine state with a dip in Dave and Simon’s waterside pool and a cold beer.

The following day Ryan flew to Melbourne leaving James and I to get down to business, we had ONE day to create the bikes and get them into Freight Customs and onto a plane. Next stop Malaysia!